Perceived Media Bias in British Columbia

Posted On April 21st, 2017

Coverage of the BC Election is heating up, and with it the accusations of media bias and “fake news”. In February, as part of INNOVATIVE’s ongoing research, we looked at how British Columbians perceived the media’s bias against the political parties in BC.

Nearly three quarters of voters (72%) thought the media was favourable to the BC Liberal Party, while only 18% thought it was biased against them. The perception of media bias towards the NDP was more mixed, with 36% believing the media was favourable while 32% felt the media was biased against the NDP. At the same time there was a very strong negative bias perceived by partisans against their own party, with 46% of BC Liberal identifiers perceiving the media as biased against them, and 68% of BC NDP identifiers perceiving the media as biased against the NDP.

The full release and methodology is posted below, and can be downloaded here.